Consensus, the annual cryptocurrency conference hosted by CoinDesk, threw its post-conference closing party at E11even, the same club where several years ago World Liberty Financial founder Zach Witkoff was arrested with cocaine.

This Miami club, described as a “strip club” by Jess Zhang, the founder and chief executive of Blockus, was criticized as a poor choice for an industry that was supposed “to be moving towards institutional maturity.”

Zhang further noted that this type of event “diminishes women to sexual objects and enforces a stale, exclusionary culture.”

Additionally, Amanda Wick, formerly a federal prosecutor, told Bloomberg that “as a gender equality advocate, the event was horrifying.”

E11even has a long history with cryptocurrency; E11even Partners decided to partner with FTX US before its collapse.

This partnership would have made FTX US “the sole converter of cryptocurrency transactions for acquiring residences” in this development by the same group as the aforementioned nightclub.

Read more: Crypto Miami apparently has a deodorant problem

At least one cryptocurrency executive rushed to defend the event: Michael Khekoian, the senior business development manager at Consensys who also does product safety at Metamask, posted, “I never knew the women working there are forced sex slaves.”

He continued, “its as if there was no actual conference or networking outside of a closing party.”

Eventually, this escalated to Khekoian threatening to sue Zhang.

Osmosis is debating a merger with Cosmos Hub via a 1.998 OSMO‑for‑0.0355 ATOM swap funded by DEX revenue, raising existential questions for OSMO, ATOM and the broader IBC DeFi stack.

Osmosis (OSMO) jumped 185% in 24 hours on May 11, reigniting debate across X about the failed COSMOSIS merger proposal that would have integrated the decentralized exchange directly into the Cosmos Hub. The sharp price movement comes less than a month after Cosmos Hub governance narrowly rejected the acquisition plan in April 2026, with speculation now centering on whether a revised proposal could succeed.

The original proposal, posted March 11, would have allowed holders to convert all circulating OSMO tokens into ATOM at a fixed rate of 1.998 OSMO for 0.0355 ATOM over a six-month window. Under that structure, approximately 665.1 million OSMO would have been eligible for conversion, with any unclaimed ATOM returning to the Cosmos Hub community pool after the deadline. The plan aimed to consolidate Osmosis liquidity, governance, and security onto a single chain, effectively making the DEX a native component of the Hub rather than an independent app-chain.

Failed Vote Sparks Renewed Speculation

After the governance vote failed by a narrow margin in mid-April, Osmosis stated it would continue operating as “an independent, profitable blockchain” and develop its next-phase roadmap. Yet recent posts from the official Osmosis account and Cosmos-focused community members suggest discussions around a revised integration path have resumed, driving heavy trading activity across OSMO markets.

The OSMO-to-ATOM conversion narrative has been trending heavily among Cosmos ecosystem participants, with some forum posts exploring whether a modified proposal could address concerns that led to the original vote’s failure. An updated version referenced in early April removed new ATOM minting from the plan, instead proposing to fund the conversion over time using Osmosis’s own DEX revenue. That revision aimed to mitigate dilution risk for ATOM holders, a key point of contention during the initial governance debate.

Consolidation Versus Sovereignty

The COSMOSIS proposal represents one of the most aggressive consolidation moves in Cosmos history, testing whether ecosystem-wide mergers can boost liquidity and valuations or undermine the sovereignty that defines the network’s app-chain model. If a revised proposal passes both Osmosis and Cosmos Hub governance, it would set a precedent that could pressure other independent chains to consider similar integrations.

Market observers note the debate mirrors broader tensions across multi-chain architectures, where projects must balance the benefits of shared security and liquidity against the risks of governance centralization. Concentrating the ecosystem’s primary DEX and hub chain under a single governance framework creates potential single-point-of-failure risks, as contentious votes could simultaneously affect trading infrastructure and network security.

Following the April rejection, some Cosmos community members floated the idea of a hostile takeover offer, arguing that nothing prevents Hub governance from drafting a proposal and presenting it directly to OSMO holders for their own vote. Whether renewed speculation translates into formal governance action remains unclear, but the 185% price surge signals that markets are pricing in a meaningful probability of eventual integration.

Key takeaways

• SEI is up 10%, outperforming the broader cryptocurrency market.
• The coin could extend its rally towards the $0.092 daily swing high in the near term.

The cryptocurrency market opened the new weekly candle mixed as some coins rallied while others underperformed.

SEI, the native coin of the Sei blockchain, is one of the best performers among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

The coin is up by 10% in the last 24 hours and could extend its rally in the near term. Technical indicators suggest that SEI could surge past a key resistance level as the broader market remains strong. 

SEI rallies as Sei Labs completes EVM Transition

The primary catalyst behind SEI’s latest rally is the completion of its unified EVM architecture. 

The team announced over the weekend that it has completed its transition to a unified, EVM-only architecture. 

This means that exchanges and custodians supporting the SEI token need to migrate customer holdings before support for Cosmos and IBC-related functionality is deprecated.

The team’s core message: Sei EVM is not a separate chain. “It’s the same chain with a second way to interact with it,” Sei Labs said in the announcement. Any venue that treats “Sei” and “Sei EVM” as two distinct integrations needs to consolidate them into one.

The push closes out SIP-3, the May 2025 governance vote that approved Sei’s pivot to a fully EVM-only architecture. 

The transition has rolled out in stages through 2026, with EVM staking added in January, inbound IBC transfers disabled in February, and the native oracle replaced by Chainlink, Pyth, and API3 in March.

SEI bulls target the $0.080 resistance level

The SEI/USD 4H chart is bearish and inefficient thanks to Sei’s latest rally. The momentum indicators suggest that the bulls remain in control of the market.

The RSI of 70 means that SEI is approaching the overbought region, which could signal incoming selling pressure. The MACD lines are also within the positive territory, adding further confluence to the bullish narrative.

If the bullish trend persists, SEI could rally past the $0.0800 level in the near term. The swing high on the daily chart at $0.09248 could be SEI’s target in the coming days and weeks.

However, if the sellers regain control, SEI could drop to the support level at $0.07021. Losing this level could see the bears push the price lower towards the $0.06490 pyschological level. 

MARA Holdings (MARA) is scheduled to report first quarter earnings after the market close on May 11, with Wall Street analysts expecting the company to post losses on revenue and earnings (EPS) of $184.21 million and $2.34 respectively.

Results are expected to reflect the sharp decline in bitcoin prices during the first quarter, with BTC falling roughly 25% over the period, from roughly $87,000 to $67,000, creating significant mark-to-market losses on MARA’s digital asset holdings.

However, investor focus is likely to center less on short term bitcoin price volatility and more on the company’s strategic transition into artificial intelligence and high performance computing infrastructure. MARA has increasingly positioned itself as part of a broader industry shift in which bitcoin miners are leveraging their existing energy assets and data center expertise to secure more stable, long term AI-related revenue streams.

The AI transition includes FTAI Infrastructure agreeing to sell Long Ridge Energy to MARA in a $1.5 billion transaction. The deal is expected to provide MARA with long-term power-generation capacity and exposure to steadier cash flow opportunities tied to AI and data center contracts, reducing reliance on the highly cyclical bitcoin mining business, where revenues fluctuate with bitcoin prices, network difficulty, and transaction fees.

In the fourth quarter, MARA reported declining revenue of 6% year-over-year from $214 million to $206 million, though it also announced a partnership with Starwood to develop AI data centers delivering approximately one gigawatt of computing capacity in the near term.

During Q1, MARA sold 15,133 BTC, valued at approximately $1.1 billion, using proceeds to repurchase $1.0 billion of convertible notes, strengthen liquidity, and continue funding its AI expansion strategy.

The broader bitcoin mining sector is increasingly following a similar path. IREN (IREN) recently expanded its AI transition through a $3.4 billion AI cloud agreement with NVIDIA (NVDA), while also recording a $140.4 million non-cash impairment charge tied to the sale of ASIC mining hardware as it reallocates infrastructure toward AI cloud services.

In addition, HIVE Digital Technologies (HIVE) announced additional investments into AI and digital infrastructure, including $3.1 million to install high speed fiber infrastructure supporting a planned 50MW AI factory.

MARA shares rose 1% to $13 in pre-market trading.

The crypto market started the week in a volatile mood, with bitcoin BTC$81,002.49 rising from $80,670 at 23:00 UTC on Sunday before topping out at $82,400 an hour later. The price subsequently dropped to trade in a fairly narrow range just beneath $81,000.

The move coincided with the weekly open of bitcoin futures on the CME and U.S. equity futures — a period that often sparks a frenzy of repositioning and a phenomenon called the “CME gap,” which occurs when the price opens at a different point to where it closed on Friday.

Due to the timing of the move, all crypto benchmarks are down on Monday with the broad CoinDesk 100 (CD100) leading the way at a 1.5% loss while the bitcoin-dominant CoinDesk 5 (CD5) dropping 0.6%.

Price action is also being dictated by geopolitical developments in Iran. U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran’s response to a peace proposal was “totally unacceptable,” leading to a rise in the price of oil and the dollar and a decline in risk assets.

Derivatives positioning

• The market-wide crypto futures open interest (OI) remains pinned just above $130 billion for the fourth straight day, pointing to a lack of fresh leverage inflows and broadly stalled momentum across the derivatives market.
• Centralized exchanges have liquidated over $400 million in leveraged futures bets, with shorts accounting for most of that amount.
• SUI’s OI has surged by 29%, validating the double-digit rise in the token’s price. This, coupled with positive funding rates and 24-hour OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta, points to growing demand for bullish exposure.
• DOGE and HBAR are other notable OI gainers, while BTC and ETH futures OI remains largely steady.
• OI in futures tied to the privacy-focused ZEC token has declined by 6%, a sign of capital outflows.
• Despite the U.S. CPI and PPI releases due later this week, the market remains calm, as evidenced by bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, which is pinned near three-month lows.
• On Deribit, bitcoin calls at strikes, ranging from $81,000 to $86,000 dominate the volume rankings. Call options are inherently bullish plays on the underlying asset.
• Block flows featured bitcoin long call condors, a strategy initiated to profit from low volatility and minimal price movement in the underlying asset.

Token talk

• Venice’s VVV token more than doubled in the past month as traders reacted to a string of emissions cuts, token burns, new products and the growing demand for AI.
• The move started with supply. Venice doubled its subscription-linked burn rate in late April, with Pro, Pro+ and Max subscriptions on the platform now triggering $2, $5 and $10 VVV burns, respectively, according to VeniceStats data.
• Venice then cut annual emissions of the token, which can be used for privacy-focused artificial intelligence, from 6 million tokens to 5 million on May 1, the first step in a planned reduction to 3 million by July, according to the project.
• The rally accelerated after StrikeRobot, which develops AI software for robots, said Venice would become a primary inference API backend for its robotics products, starting with SR Agentic and SR Platform.
• Meanwhile, subscription revenue is rising. Co-founder Jesse Proudman said Monday that subscription and credit purchases hit a record, topping the prior high by 10%.
• VVV remains below its $22.5 January 2025 record. The token had fallen as much as 50% shortly after its debut amid insider-trading concerns tied to early purchases by Aerodrome Finance contributors.

Circle, issuer of the world’s second-largest stablecoin, USDC, posted estimate-beating first-quarter earnings as revenue rose 20% and it raised $222 million for its Arc blockchain network in a presale of the ARC token.

Earnings per share (EPS) of 21 cents beat analyst estimates of 17 cents, while revenue rose 20% to a less-than-forecast $694 million. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) grew 24% from a year earlier to $151 million, the New York-based company reported.

USDC onchain transaction volume jumped over 260% from the year-earlier quarter to $21.5 trillion, and USDC in circulation increased 28% to $77 billion.

The ARC token presale values the project at $3 billion. The fundraising round included investment from a mix of Wall Street heavyweights and crypto-native firms, including BlackRock, Apollo Funds, a16z crypto, ARK Invest, CoinDesk’s parent company Bullish, Haun Ventures, Intercontinental Exchange and Standard Chartered Ventures.

The fundraising marks Circle’s most ambitious expansion beyond USDC and payments infrastructure, pushing the stablecoin issuer deeper into the race to build blockchain infrastructure for institutional finance.

Circle also published the Arc whitepaper on Monday, outlining ARC as a “native coordination asset” designed to support governance, validator security and network operations across the chain.

Arc, which began testing in October, is being positioned as a blockchain optimized for stablecoin-based capital markets and regulated financial activity, which includes tokenized assets, cross-border settlement and onchain finance.

Unlike USDC, which functions as a dollar-pegged payment token, ARC appears intended to play a role closer to ether (ETH) on Ethereum or SOL on Solana — helping coordinate the network’s economic and security model.

CRCL shares were nearly 1.2% higher at $115 in pre-market trading at around 7:30 a.m. ET.

UPDATE (May 11, 11:20 UTC): Adds Circle’s first-quarter earnings report information and restructures article to lead with earnings.